Evan first sentence "I see you."
Emma still only has two bottom teeth
Evan is definitely turning two (if you know what I mean).
Emma is so close to walking. She can walk quite well just holding one hand but she still is not interested in moving from an army crawl to a full crawl.
Evan loves books, anything with wheels helping mommy,and playing with other kids.
Emma loves eating "real" food, dancing, and playing with her brother. She can hardly wait until she can run around with Evan.
Last week we went strawberry pick'n with some friends of ours. It was a delicious time. Emma had never had strawberries but she took to them like a bear to honey. And Evan, my little fruit and veggie eater was in heaven.
It didn't take us long to finish off our basket of berries. Luckily strawberry shortcake is a very low point value (for the Weight Watchers savvy readers) dessert.
This past weekend the southern chapter of the HOV (a group of friends from my single days who still live in the south) got together for a few days in the Georgia mountains. A sweet neighbor of mine lent us the use of her mountain home, thank you Susan!! Evan, Emma and I had a nice weekend away as James studied for finals.
Katherine and Lisa were able to join us Friday evening. Lisa, who is expecting a baby girl in August enjoyed a mini baby shower that evening.
Saturday we spent an afternoon at Amicalola Falls state park. It had rained in the morning so the sky was pleasantly overcast and everything was wet and fresh. Katherine had just gotten a nice camera so she became the official photographer. So all of the great photos are credited to her.
Sunday we attended the Ellijay branch for church. We were all planning on leaving after sacrament meeting because Lisa and Katherine were going to head home. Well when the time came we were walking out the door and Evan flat out refused. He wanted to go to nursery. So Evan, Emma and I stayed and Evan made a new friend in nursery.
Monday we tried to go to a petting farm but we found out that it is only open during apple season, September -November. In case you didn't know, North Georgia is rich with apple orchards. The town of Ellijay (where we were staying) is home of the Georgia apple festival. Evan and I were really disappointed that the farm wasn't open. I had been talking all morning about all of the animals we were going to see. So we had to settle for a park instead.
We were planning on returning home Tuesday afternoon but we decided to go home Monday night and surprise daddy. He had been missing us really bad.
Well we hope you enjoy the pictures.
A groggy mommy and a perfectly awake Evan feeding the deer first thing in the morning. We would put corn just outside the kitchen and within a ten minutes six or seven deer were munching away. Evan and Emma just loved watching the deer and the squirrels and the birds.
How cute is that! Evan enjoyed us spiking his hair and hamming it up for the camera.
Emma is so sweet.
I was asked to speak in church the other day about how to raise a righteous family. I was very grateful for this topic. This is obviously something that I have been thinking a lot about over the last couple of years but this assignment forced me to focus my ponderings.
As each parent realizes rather quickly we cannot force our children to make all of the right choices (I am beginning to relate to Heavenly Father already). I knew before Evan and Emma were born that my job as their mother is to help them acquire the tools they will need to make good choices on their own. Okay this is not a new revelation. However I have now pin pointed ten tools that I feel are essential to my children's eternal happiness.
1. The ability to recognize and follow the spirit
2. Knowledge of and more importantly a relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
3. Knowledge that they and every person around them is of divine origin and has a divine purpose
4. Be filled with a desire to know and follow truth
5. Have an unquenchable desire to serve, learn and teach
6. Be self-reliant and to value hard work
7. Desire to use their gift of agency for righteous purposes
8. A love of family
9. Moral courage to stand for righteousness - integrity
10. Ability to see beauty and goodness in the world around them - The condition of society is bleak and our children are growing up in a world of incredible challenges. I feel strongly that we must teach our children of the good and beauty and virtue which is still abundant in the world. These virtuous and beautiful things need to be more attractive to our children then the delusions that the world offers.
What an awesome responsibility. It is easy to forget this goal in the busyness of everyday life. The laundry, dishes, meals, the cleaning and doing. The playing and the reading. The hugging and the disciplining.......perhaps it is not forgotten at all, but is in these everyday things that these tools are forged. Thank God for heavenly help in this most important work.
